Chapter 223: Fulfilling a Life’s Dream

After Jiang Li put on the holographic simulator, Bai Hongtu sensed a faint spatial fluctuation and judged it to be a spatial tunnel for transmitting information.

He used the Dao of Space to expand the narrow spatial tunnel and dragged Jiang Li toward the other end.

Bai Hongtu estimated that the two ends of the spatial tunnel were separated by millions of light-years and felt fortunate that Jiang Li had come up with this method—if they had followed his own plan, mobilizing all Fusion Stage cultivators in the Nine Provinces, who knew how long it would’ve taken to find it.

Bai Hongtu arrived in the star system where Gougle Civilization resided, utterly shocked.

……

“I’ve been feeling kinda bored with this world lately, was thinking of restarting it and switching to something new. Brother Jiang, got any suggestions?”

“How about ‘King of Soldiers Returns to the City,’ hiding your identity, acting cool and slapping faces?”

“Great idea.”

Du Ming and Jiang Li were browsing a weapons shop. The shop owner was a spirited young woman with short hair and an impressively full chest.

“What do you think of the weapon shop owner? Should I make her like you?”

“No need. By the way, how do people in this world come to exist? They seem no different from real humans. Are they actually real?”

“That’s the beauty of what Feitian Corporation did—they spent a hundred years collecting data to create virtual personalities. Everyone in these small worlds is a virtual personality.”

“And because they’re virtual, I can tweak their attributes however I want.”

Then Du Ming took Jiang Li to another friend’s world.

A hundred-meter-tall monster emerged from the water, humans fled in all directions, and at that moment, a giant appeared out of thin air to fight the beast.

The giant was no match and began to tire. Luckily, at the critical moment, he gained a new power—what Du Ming called a power form.

After a fierce struggle, the giant finally defeated the monster.

“This friend of mine’s a huge tokusatsu fan. Loves this kind of storyline. Never gets tired of it. He always wanted to be a hero in a tokusatsu series, and now he’s finally living the dream. That’s why some people call Feitian Corporation’s holographic simulator the ‘Dream Fulfillment Machine.’”

“Not bad.”

Du Ming’s friend nodded at both of them—a greeting of sorts.

Du Ming then took Jiang Li to another friend’s world.

This friend gave himself all kinds of powers: enhanced physique, X-ray vision, flight, and so on. After getting these abilities, he stayed in school, entangled in ambiguous relationships with the campus belle and various beauties from outside the school. The atmosphere was thick with romantic tension.

These beauties would run into trouble—like local thugs—and he’d use his powers to help them, earning their affection.

Leaders and entrepreneurs, recognizing him as an extraordinary talent, treated him with great respect. And whenever someone looked down on him, those same people would come forward and shut them up.

“This friend of mine loves ambiguous flirting, drifting between women without committing. Honestly, I think he should learn from me—just change the law and allow polygamy.”

Jiang Li disagreed, shaking his head. “If that’s what he likes, why force him to think like you?”

“True.”

The two then arrived in another world. A blinding white light flashed, unbearable heat filled the space, and matter burst outward, forming planets.

If not for the protective shield, they would’ve died.

Of course, death wasn’t real in the simulation.

“This is world creation.” Du Ming was familiar with the scene. Normally, he would use preset templates to build worlds—it was easier. But occasionally, curiosity struck and he’d simulate a Big Bang to create a universe.

“So the universe really came from a singularity explosion?” Jiang Li asked, puzzled.

“No idea. That’s what scientists say. But who really knows? They used to say the universe came from a Big Bang, then they said it was created by gods, then they said it came from nothing, and now they’re back to the Big Bang again.”

Du Ming shrugged. “All just theories, nothing to rely on. What we’re seeing now is also theoretical. Who knows what’s real? I heard the numerical coefficients from the Big Bang don’t align with reality, and even Feitian Corporation couldn’t resolve that, so they just turned the scene into a cutscene.”

Jiang Li nodded. That made more sense. According to Immortal Elder Changcun, even the Celestial Realm doesn’t know how the world was born. If some obscure Gougle Civilization had figured it out, that’d be terrifying.

Turns out, he was overthinking it.

After the universe exploded, time accelerated, and soon, a planet birthed humanoid life.

Technically, that shouldn’t have happened so fast. But the small world’s creator had modified the rules to allow humanoid life to emerge.

The small world’s owner descended before the primitive humans, displayed divine power, and was worshipped as a god.

The primitives received divine revelation, learned supernatural powers, and became extraordinary beings.

“Playing god again?” Du Ming teased his friend.

“Playing god? I’m guiding them forward with my wisdom! Who’s to say our ancestors didn’t awaken the same way?” the god of primitives snapped at Du Ming.

“I heard you were coming to my world—thought you liked creation stories. If I’d known you were like this, I wouldn’t have let you in. Get out, stop disturbing me.”

The god of primitives cast a miracle and kicked Jiang Li and Du Ming out.

Thanks to Du Ming’s introductions, Jiang Li saw all kinds of small worlds.

One person went back twenty years and, with knowledge ahead of the times, built a massive business empire.

Another traveled to ancient times, changed history, and became a legendary hero.

Someone else went to a fantasy realm—starting in the Yellow Realm, leveling up through the Mystic Realm, Earth Realm, Heaven Realm, God Realm, Saint Realm, and ultimately reaching the Supreme Realm…

There were failures too—like one guy who went back to rebel and seize power. To keep things realistic, he gave himself no special powers. He got caught by the emperor and his whole clan was executed. In a rage, he used admin privileges to forcibly succeed in his rebellion.

“So? Got any ideas for your own world?”

Jiang Li was itching to try—he wanted to create his own world. Just then, he sensed Bai Hongtu calling him, so he said goodbye to Du Ming and logged out.

“I’m telling you, this Gougle Civilization is pretty interesting. I’ll find you a holographic simulator too, you should try it.” Jiang Li pitched the simulator to Bai Hongtu, a smile in his eyes.

“Is that so? Then take a look at this—do you still think Gougle Civilization is interesting?” For once, Bai Hongtu didn’t joke with Jiang Li. He pointed downward, face solemn.

Jiang Li followed his finger—and what he saw wiped the smile from his face, replaced by a look of shock and seriousness.

Rows of black, coffin-like containers stretched endlessly. Inside each one lay a person, wearing a holographic simulator. Their bodies were shriveled, submerged in blue liquid, and their lips curled into blissful smiles.

But they were already dead.

Jiang Li saw a name tag on one of the boxes.

Du Ming.

Then who had been talking to him just now?